- Markets in Asia consolidate between gains and losses.
- PBOC announces another rate cut, Japan’s PM considers cash handouts as an aid.
- IMF cites the return of the global financial crisis, US President Trump remains optimistic.
- Virus updates, Indian data and US earnings can offer fresh direction.
While struggling to justify the mixed signals, Asian equities alternate losses with gains during the pre-Europe session on Wednesday.
To portray the indecision, MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan register 0.50% gains whereas Japan’s NIKKEI is down 0.20% by the press time.
The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) forecast of the global slowdown, with -3.0% mark in 2020, mainly questioned the buyers together with the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis headlines.
On the positive side, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) extended one-year loans through its medium-term lending facility (MLF) by injecting CNY100 billion at a reduced lending rate of 2.95% from 3.15% prior. Further, Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe considered paying a cash handout of 100,000 yen per person to help combat the pandemic. Additionally, US President Donald Trump reiterated the push to re-open the economy sooner while holding bullish bias for the equities.
Amid all these, the US 10-year Treasury yields remain pressured below 0.75% whereas stock futures also trim the previous gains.
Moving on, stocks in Australia fails to cheer the PM’s statement showing help for businesses but those from New Zealand benefit amid signals from Finance Minister Robertson.
It’s worth mentioning that Indian equities are up on the expectations of further aid from the government after extended lockdown to May 03 while the Chinese shares remain mixed despite the PBOC rate cut.
Looking forward, the US earnings and the virus updates could entertain the traders whereas India’s WPI Inflation and Trade Deficit figures may offer intermediate signals.
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